Ski Sizing

Ski sizing is generally predicated on the skier’s height. The general rule of thumb is a ski should come up to a beginner’s chin, and advanced skier’s eyebrows, and an expert skier’s forehead. However personal preference should be taken into account too. Longer skis are better for going faster while shorter are better for making turns. At Ski Barn we like to start with the general length guidelines and then tailor the length of ski to the type of skiing you will be doing.

Ski width is also an important piece to get right. Wider skis offer better control in softer snow and narrower skis are better on more firm snow. For this reason most skier will own more than one pair of skis so they can use which will be best for the conditions they will be facing that day. Skis designed to be used on hard snow surfaces have an underfoot width of 70-85mm and skis designed to be used in powder and softer snow have widths of 100-120mm. Skis with widths between 85 and 100mm are called all mountain skis. This is what almost everyone uses and are designed to be equally good in powder as they are on groomed runs.